WEST MICHIGAN — For 20 years, Kids Food Basket has helped families dealing with food insecurity across west Michigan. What started as 125 "sack suppers" has turned into more than 9000, plus education, outreach and more. But this continues to be a community effort, and the organization is always hoping to get more people on board. "Our goal is really to find new ways to raise awareness, new opportunities to engage with people.” Ashley Diersch is the Vice-President of Development for Kids Food Basket. As the organization turns the page on two decades of service to families in west Michigan, they hope to reach an even broader audience with their 2022 campaign. "We wanted to create something new with this being our 20 year anniversary year and so our Tic Tac Go Orange board is just what it sounds like. It's a tic tac toe board but in place of all of the squares, there are different opportunities to engage.”
Everyone is invited to play along, from individuals, to families to businesses and organizations. You choose how you want to be involved. Diersch says, "people can host a wish list drive, people can come on site and volunteer, they can wear orange, they can support some of our local community partners. And we're asking people to complete the board, post on social media and then really help us talk about how they're a champion for Kids Food Basket and what the work that we're doing and why it's critical to the community.”
Starting March 1, you can download your own Tic Tac Go Orange board online and get to work supporting the organization – X-ing and O-ing as many boxes as you can, until March 30. "We know childhood hunger isn't fun but if we can find a fun way to engage people and really bring awareness to it and in a different light than just having a conversation, this is the way people can touch all of the work that we're doing from providing meals to educational opportunities to just simply wearing orange, it can be done anywhere.” You can find a link to download the Tic Tac Go Orange board on the Kids Food Basket website, https://kidsfoodbasket.org/. Fill it up through the end of the month, and on March 30, there will be a drive through event to collect wish list items at all 3 of their locations - and you can bring your board to pick up prizes as well.
